If you’re of a certain age and associate “Bolero” with Bo Derek and a particular walk on the beach, then this weekend’s performance of “Bolero Variations” by Raimund Hoghe at the Walker Art Center will disabuse of you any further correlation.
Hoghe, a former journalist from Wuppertal, Germany, worked for a decade as a dramaturge for the late Pina Bausch. In 1989, he started creating his own work, inspired by a quote by Pier Paolo Pasolini about throwing one’s body into the fight. And his body reflects such a battle. Hoghe suffers from severe scoliosis, which has rendered his physique short, slight and hunchbacked.
That didn’t stop him from being named Dancer of the Year 2008 by ballettanz. Nor from creating works like “Bolero Variations,” which has been described as beautiful “not in its seemingly minimalistic choreography, it is in its honest, inescapable embrace with reality.” (Go here for the full review.)
Hoghe draws from numerous variations of the bolero — from Spain and Cuba, to the Torvill and Dean ice-dancing rendition during the 1984 Olympics. But flash and virtuosity aren’t the watchwords here. As one critic wrote, “Hoghe and his dancers take their time and share something very poetic, drastically honest, and quietly resistant.”
“Bolero Variations.” 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis. Tickets $21-$25. 612-375-7600.
